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China urged an end to “illegal” sanctions on Iran as it hosted Iranian and Russian diplomats on Friday for talks Beijing hopes will restart long-stalled negotiations on Tehran’s nuclear programme.The United States withdrew from a landmark 2015 deal, which imposed curbs on Tehran’s nuclear development in return for sanctions relief, during US President Donald Trump’s first term.The Republican president has called for a new nuclear deal with Iran since his return to the White House in January, but Tehran says no such agreement is possible so long as punishing sanctions remain in place.The effort to secure a pact was given new urgency last month when the UN nuclear watchdog said Iran had significantly increased its stockpile of highly enriched uranium.Beijing hosted Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov for talks on Friday it said it hoped would help “resume dialogue and negotiation at an early time”.Meeting the diplomats, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi stressed “the comprehensive agreement on the Iranian nuclear issue is an important achievement achieved through dialogue and negotiation”.”Now the situation has reached a critical juncture again. We must buy time for peace, resolve disputes through political and diplomatic means, and oppose the use of force and illegal sanctions,” he said.And the United States should demonstrate “political sincerity and return to talks at an early date”, said a statement from the Chinese foreign ministry, which outlined proposals for resolving the Iran nuclear issue. “All parties should… refrain from actions that might escalate the situation,” the statement added. – ‘Peaceful’ nuclear programme -Gharibabadi, in turn, hailed the “constructive” talks in Beijing and said Iran’s nuclear programme “is peaceful in nature”.”But unfortunately, some countries are trying to create an unnecessary crisis in this regard,” he said.”The main root cause of the current situation is the unilateral withdrawal of the United States.”Gharibabadi told Iran’s Mehr news agency that China and Russia had backed Iran’s position that any new nuclear talks should “focus solely on the nuclear issue”.One of the reasons cited by Trump for abandoning the 2015 deal was that it did not seek to address Iran’s ballistic missile programme which he argued posed a threat to the United States.The Russian and Iranian officials met China’s Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu earlier on Friday and “exchanged views on the Iran nuclear issue and other issues of common concern”, Chinese state media said.Ma reiterated after that meeting China’s support for “political and diplomatic engagement and dialogue based on mutual respect”.”We emphasised the necessity of ending all illegal, unilateral sanctions,” Ma told reporters.Iran’s ambassador to China said later on social media platform X the meeting was a “complete success”.The talks resulted in agreements on “trilateral cooperation on important international issues, including the need for the three countries to cooperate in confronting” US sanctions, he said.The Kremlin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that “it is necessary to further continue diplomatic efforts” on Iran’s nuclear programme, and condemned “illegal” sanctions against Tehran.- ‘Maximum pressure’ -Trump has reinstated his “maximum pressure” policy of sanctions against Iran, mirroring his approach during his first term.He sent a letter to Tehran this week urging nuclear talks and warning of possible military action if it refuses.Tehran said the letter, which Trump said was addressed to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was currently “being reviewed”.”Ultimately, the United States should lift the sanctions,” Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in an interview published by the government’s official newspaper on Thursday.Washington upped its pressure campaign the same day by imposing sanctions on Iranian Petroleum Minister Mohsen Paknejad.The US Treasury Department also blacklisted the owners or operators of vessels it said were engaged in transporting Iranian oil to China.

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Iran is increasingly using digital and surveillance technology and “state-sponsored vigilantism” to crush dissent after the “Women, Life, Freedom” protests in 2022, a UN investigation said Friday.Tehran is making “concerted state efforts to stifle dissent, perpetuating a climate of fear and systematic impunity”, the United Nations’ Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran said in a new report.These involve “the increased use of technology and surveillance, including through state-sponsored vigilantism”.Iran was rocked by demonstrations after the September 2022 death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old who had been arrested for allegedly violating the strict dress rule for women based on Islamic sharia law.Widespread anger led to weeks of taboo-breaking protests against the country’s government under supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.In November 2022, the UN Human Rights Council created a high-level investigation into the deadly crackdown.The fact-finding mission’s chair Sara Hossain told a press conference Friday that the trajectory had shifted from extreme violence during the protests’ peak to “a silencing and repression that’s ongoing”.- Criminalisation and surveillance -“For two years, Iran has refused to adequately acknowledge the demands for equality and justice that fuelled the protests in 2022,” Hossain said.”The criminalisation, surveillance and continued repression of protesters, families of victims and survivors, in particular women and girls, is deeply worrying.”Since April 2024, Iran increased the policing and criminal prosecutions of women defying the mandatory wearing of the hijab, the probe said.In its first report, the mission found that the violent crackdown on peaceful protests and discrimination against women and girls resulted in serious rights violations, many amounting to crimes against humanity.Its new report went deeper into patterns of violations and crimes, and their evolution following the protests.The investigators said that so far 10 men had been executed in the context of the protests, while at least 11 men and three women remain at risk of being executed.- Technology ‘amplifying’ control -“The state has leveraged digital tools to silence dissent, with technology amplifying and extending state control to restrict freedom of expression and association, and to control narratives,” the mission said.Hossain said Tehran had “massively engaged” in surveillance and restriction of speech in the digital realm.The Nazer app, for example, allows vetted individuals to report non-compliance in private vehicles. In September, it was updated to monitor women “in ambulances, public transport or taxis”, the report said.The confiscation of vehicles from women for alleged violations of the hijab laws also persisted, it added.Mission member Shaheen Sardar Ali highlighted the “chilling enhancing of surveillance through apps, drones and the use of facial recognition technology”, which is “very far-reaching and highly intrusive”.Hossain said that while facial recognition technology was being used worldwide, “what’s unusual and extraordinary” in Iran was its use to monitor “what a woman wears or doesn’t wear”.Furthermore, in April 2024 in Tehran and southern Iran, the state used aerial drone surveillance to monitor hijab compliance, the report said.- ‘Continuously intimidated’ -Iran’s judicial system lacks basic independence, the mission said, and victims seeking accountability are denied justice and “continuously intimidated, threatened, arrested, and subjected to criminal prosecution” along with their families.”It is therefore imperative that comprehensive accountability measures also continue to be pursued outside the country,” Sardar Ali said.The probe, which is wrapping up, has collected and preserved 38,000 evidence items and interviewed 285 victims and witnesses over two yearsIran denied the mission access to the country.Rather than seeking a prolongation of its own investigation, the mission called for a new probe into rights violations with a broader scope than just the protests and their aftermath.The report will be presented to the Human Rights Council on Tuesday.

Syria’s interim foreign minister said in Baghdad on Friday his government was ready to “reinforce cooperation” with Iraq in the fight against remnants of the Islamic State group.Asaad al-Shaibani’s visit to Syria’s neighbour coincided with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani announcing that security forces had killed a senior IS leader.It was also Shaibani’s first visit to Iraq since his Islamist alliance toppled Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad in December.Relations between neighbours Syria and Iraq have become more complicated since the ouster of Assad, who was a close ally of the government in Baghdad.Iraq is home to a Shiite Muslim majority, and while it is a strategic partner of the United States, it is also a key ally of Iran, once a main backer of Assad’s rule.While Assad’s key support came from Russia, Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon, Iraqi armed groups were also engaged in defending his rule during the 13-year civil war sparked by his crackdown on democracy protests.The rebels who ended up ousting Assad in December are Sunni Muslim, and interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who has sought to present a more moderate image since coming to power, once fought with Al-Qaeda in Iraq against US forces and their allies.In Baghdad on Friday, Shaibani met Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein, the official INA news agency reported.”Security is a shared responsibility,” Shaibani told a joint news conference with Hussein.”We are ready to reinforce cooperation with Iraq in the fight against Daesh (an Arabic acronym for IS) along the whole length of the border. Terrorism knows no borders.”- Alawite killings -Sudani on Friday posted on X that Abdullah Makki Muslih al-Rufayi, the IS leader killed by Iraqi security forces, “was considered one of the most dangerous terrorists in Iraq and the world”.He said the jihadist, who was targeted by US sanctions in 2023, was IS’s so-called governor of the group’s Syrian and Iraqi provinces.Sudani did not say when Rufayi was killed, but applauded the operation by Iraqi intelligence that was carried out in cooperation with the US-led anti-jihadist coalition in Iraq.At the joint news conference with Shaibani, Hussein said Iraq hoped there would be “tangible results” from an investigation launched by Syria’s new authorities into mass killings of civilians by the security forces that largely targeted the Alawite minority.”We discussed what happened to the Alawite community… and we expressed our concern,” he said, adding that he hoped a commission of inquiry formed by Damascus “would achieve tangible results that establish civil peace in Syria”.Baghdad condemned the massacre of at least 1,383 civilians in coastal Syria earlier this month by security forces, allied groups and jihadists.The vast majority of the civilians killed were Alawites, members of Assad’s sect, itself an offshoot of Shiite Islam.Baghdad said earlier this week it was investigating an attack on Syrian workers in Iraq after a newly formed group in the country vowed to avenge the mass killing of Alawite civilians.Supporters of pro-Iran armed groups in Iraq have launched an online campaign against Syrians who they say support the mass killings.Iraqi forces have in recent days arrested at least 13 Syrians accused of “promoting terrorist groups” and supporting the mass killings in Syria, two interior ministry officials told AFP on condition of anonymity.On Wednesday, Syria’s foreign ministry denounced the violence against its citizens, and urged Baghdad to take “necessary measures to ensure the security of Syrians residing in Iraq”.burs-srm/kir

Israel’s premier and the head of internal security are engaged in a very public spat over reforms to the agency, accused of failing to prevent the October 7, 2023 attack. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar of resorting to “blackmail” and “threats” over the proposed reforms.On Thursday, Bar’s predecessor Nadav Argaman added oil to the fire in an interview he gave to Israel’s privately owned Channel 12 television.”I keep everything private that occurred one-on-one between me and the prime minister. It is quite clear that I have a great deal of knowledge which I could put to use, but I do not,” Argaman said.”If I conclude that the prime minister has decided to act in contravention of the law, then I will have no choice — I will reveal everything I know… in order to preserve the importance of relations between the Shin Bet chief and the premier.”The former security chief added: “I’m very troubled by the fact that the prime minister is deliberately damaging Israeli society and causing friction within it in order to rule.”Netanyahu responded on social media platform X, accusing Argaman of engaging in “live, on-air extortion against a sitting prime minister” and of making “Mafia-style criminal threats”.He also accused Bar of being behind what he called “part of an ongoing campaign of threats and media leaks” aimed at preventing him “from making the necessary decisions to restore the Shin Bet after its devastating failure on October 7.”- ‘Baseless’ accusation -The domestic security agency is formally known as the Internal Security Agency.On March 4, it acknowledged its failure in preventing Hamas’s 2023 attack, saying that if it had acted differently the deadliest day in Israel’s history could have been averted.In a rare move, the agency has now issued a statement about the political controversy, denouncing “a serious accusation against the head of a state agency in Israel” and calling it “baseless”.The statement said “Ronen Bar dedicates all his time to security matters, efforts to bring back the hostages and defending democracy”.Bar has led the Shin Bet since 2021, and his relations with Netanyahu were strained even before the Hamas attack, notably over proposed judicial reforms that split the country in the lead-up.Relations became even more strained after the March 4 release of the internal Shin Bet report on the attack.After admitting responsibility for failures, Bar added that in order to truly understand how the unprecedented attack was not stopped, there needed to be a broader probe into the role of Israel’s security and political elements and the cooperation between them.The report said that “a policy of quiet had enabled Hamas to undergo massive military buildup”.Netanyahu has demanded the departure of Bar, whose mandate expires in October 2026.But Israeli media have reported his refusal to quit, meaning the premier may have to fire him at a crucial time when the war in Gaza could resume if talks underway in Qatar fail to prolong a January ceasefire.- Agency independence -In the meantime, Bar’s responsibilities appear to have been curtailed.Media reports say he was excluded from a security cabinet meeting and also the Israeli negotiating delegation in Doha, which is being led by Bar’s deputy, known only as ‘M’.Bar had been involved in previous sessions of indirect negotiations with Hamas, including those that led to the ceasefire.Netanyahu and Bar also disagree on who should replace the current Shin Bet chief.Bar wants ‘M’ to succeed him, as is customary, but Netanyahu wants the final say on the appointment.Media reports say everything boils down to Shin Bet independence in the face of a premier tempted to appoint someone loyal who would act in his political interests, rather than those of the country.The Israeli opposition has already denounced government proceedings to dismiss Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, a vocal critic of Netanyahu who is also the government’s legal adviser.Baharav-Miara is a fierce defender of the judiciary’s independence who has often taken positions that clashed with those of Netanyahu’s government.When the premier returned to power in 2022 after being ousted, she warned that his new government’s legislative programme threatened to turn Israel into a “democracy in name, but not in essence”.